


Torn Pages

by orphan_account



Category: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (Short Film)
Genre: Assisted Suicide, Can be padlock if you want it to, Gen, Probably a little PSTD, THEYRE NOT GJINKAS, The teachers also don't want to be there, These tags are a hot mess too god, abusive boss, in a puppet sort of way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 12:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7361347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faced with the reality of being "fired", Paige entrusts Tony with carrying out a difficult decision. The consequences aren't exactly what they expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. June 18

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is really short but it cuts off at a good place. Expect an update probably tomorrow.

Six years

They were long, left with the empty promise of release, which dwindled.

All of the teachers were promised release, once they had taught their lessons. Newer ones still clung to the thought devoutly. Older ones saw through it.

Soon, word got out that one would be fired. Only one teacher had ever been fired. They were dragged off to the principal's office, the door shut, and they were never seen again. Nobody spoke of it since.

And this time, the Principal had deemed Paige unnecessary. She kept quiet about it, only mentioning it to her successor, Tony. He hadn't dreamed of a fate like that ever happening to himself or his friends. Paige didn't do anything wrong, and wasn't remotely threatening to the principal. At most she sounded somewhat intimidating when she taught. 

She was due for firing the night before the next lesson. 

Five hours.

"Funny how time snuck up on us." Tony mused aloud, listening to the rhythmic sounds of his internal workings. 

He got an annoyed glance in return, "Us?"

"..You.." The clock replied submissively. They were spending Paige's last hours together in the sitting room, staring at the flickering color test screen on the television.

The kids were off in the kitchen, playing a board game, unaware of the teachers in the other room.

"I wonder what they'll learn tomorrow.." Paige murmured as she watched them. The red one muttered something indistinct, and the others nodded, chattering on about whatever they were discussing. 

The tension in the air between the doomed teacher, her successor, and the children in the other room was so thick it could be cut with a knife. The coming day offered death and pain, certainly. 

Nobody would have suspected a new life to begin, on that cursed day.

Paige sat up

"Tony."

He glanced at her apathetically.

"I have a plan."

He offered a small grunt of acknowledgement.

"Please just listen."

He sat up. Eyes falling on the small notepad. She met his gaze with pleading eyes.

"Kill me."


	2. June 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony follows Paige's request, and is greeted by the result

Tony opened his mouth to protest and was quickly cut off by the other's raised hand 

"Just listen. If the principal gets his hands on me, who knows what will happen. If you kill me and preserve my pages with.. Time. I can still be with you. Sort of."

Tony closed his mouth, stunned. It would obviously work, yes, and despite the fact that he wanted Paige to be safe, this WAS the safest way. He mulled it over quietly. Paige watched him.

\---

Four minutes.

They were going to do it. Tony took her to a small closet, a discreet place the kids wouldn't notice and the principal rarely monitored. 

"Paige?"

She glanced up at him from where she was held in his arms. His hands were clutching her pages gingerly, ready to tear them out. He was going to kill her. She was okay with it.

"Yeah Tony?"

She was shaking faintly, pages rustling with her motions. 

"I'm really sorry.."

She closed her eyes at his words, taking a deep, controlled breath, and Tony pulled.

There was a brief, gut wrenching shriek. Paige never ever raised her voice, but this was loud and pained. It stopped as soon as it started, and Tony kept tearing her pages away, all at the same time.

Her delicate limbs went limp halfway through, swinging down towards the ground lifelessly, and once her pages separated fully from her sweet little body, they were brittle and weak. 

Tony staggered back against the door, ticking of his body growing deafening. He could feel each individual gear moving, turning in rhythm. What was next.. He was losing it. Paige died in his arms. He pulled her apart. Her pages were in his hand now, her cover was on the ground, binding mangled and torn.

She wanted to be preserved in time. That's what.

Tony held her pages up with a trembling arm, imbuing them with the power he was given. To teach time, to adjust it at will as if it were putty, to.. to.. Take care of Paige..

The stiff pages went limp in his outstretched hand and he pulled them close, shaking.

It was done. 

The first teacher, the simplest and most elegant of them. Torn to pieces by the one she trusted most.

And then, her body moved. Tony nearly threw the mess of now bound pages into the floor in surprise. They were marked with the current date, June 19th. 

A calendar. 

He slumped down against the door. This wasn't possible. He made a calendar from her pages. Sacred, once living pages, turned into.. A novelty of timekeeping.

It blinked at him. 

Tony uttered a quiet, horrified exclamation and backed away from whatever was happening, pressing himself against the door pitifully.

Thin appendages grew from its body, and it pulled itself up, blinking and rubbing its eyes. 

A calendar. They'd made a calendar. 

She spoke with Paige's voice.

"Oh. Hello."

Her soft greeting was met with frightened, teary eyes and a strained sob of a response. She moved like Paige did, had her voice, and uncertain stature. Tony saw himself in her too; afraid, unsure of what was to come, charged with confusing emotions.

She was a more than a teacher, but a life like the children who learned.

Tony reached out a hand to her. She was real--Paige's final creative endeavor.


End file.
